Educator
2021 Educator of the Year Award
Awarded "2021 Educator of the Year" by the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce.
Olivo has led teacher training sessions at South Central Indiana Association for Early Youth and Childhood Conferences, Monroe County Community School Corporation, and Indiana Music Educators Association, on teaching creativity, early childhood music, BloomingSongs, Glocal Music: music of our community spanning near and far, and Maker Technology within the music classroom.
Composition Instruction
Maggie has led the Bridges MAYO composition class together with Lauren Bernofsky, Ari Schwartz, and Alex Tedrow. Over the course of a week, students created chamber works for string ensembles to be performed by the MAYO faculty. During the school year, music composition units make up a standard part of the students' curriculum. Over the course of 10 years as a public school teacher, Maggie has had dozens of student melodies as finalists and winners in the IU Jacobs Kids Compose competition. Olivo teaches music composition at Rocky Ridge in Estes Park, CO.
Directing and instructing the IU Jacobs School of Music Musical Beginnings program since 2007. With training in Feierabend's First Steps, Kodaly Methodology, and Musikgarten, Polk-Olivo has served hundreds of Bloomington families with little ones. The progrom serves over 40 families every semester, with children ages 0-5.
Bloomington Bridges: MAYO: Program Director
Program director for Musical Arts Youth Organization, including summer program and direction, fiscal year clinics (marimba and improvisation workshops), and composition workshops.
Teaches general music classes to preschool and kindergarten classrooms. Co-directs Fairview Violin Project with Dr. Brenda Brenner. Coordinates Fairview Arts programing and community artists.
"I was tearing up watching you [Maggie] teach my song to the kids. I love what you do with it, and I think you really do make the song more than what Alej and I created."
-Lauren Bernofsky, composer
Founder and creator of the BloomingSongs project, the project features over 60 original pieces and arrangements, over 100 musical artists, hosts teacher training sessions throughout Indiana and provides live musical experiences to Bloomington, Indiana families. It has been made possible by grants from The Puffin and Smithville Foundations, Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association, and the Bloomington Arts Council. BloomingSongs have found themselves